Studio Session with James Kim and Larry Weng

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Young Artists Showcase first studio session of 2013, features two musicians from Yale: 19-year-old cellist James Kim, and his almost as young pianist partner, Larry Weng. A few weeks ago, the Young Artists Showcase rang in the new year with a celebration of the new Salon de Virtuosi grant winners, but left one out in anticipation of this studio visit.

James Jeonghwan Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, and didn’t pick up the cello until the age of 9, when he moved with his family to Indiana. Kim has quickly accumulated prizes, concerto competitions and an impressive list of collaborators from Benjamin Zander and Peter Wiley, to the legendary cellist and Indiana University professor Janos Starker.

For this Young Artists studio session, Kim collaborated with Weng in a preview of his Feb. 3 Weill Hall debut. The program includes sonatas by Debussy, Mendelssohn and Weng has a solo piano turn with a movement from Beethoven’s Appassionata sonata.